


Between a Rock and a Hard Place

by kuchiki977



Category: Baccano!
Genre: Dallas has a potty mouth kids, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2015-03-26
Packaged: 2018-03-19 13:12:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3611307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuchiki977/pseuds/kuchiki977
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nope. Nu-uh. No way.The only way Luck Gandor has a shot with Dallas' sister is over his temporarily dead body!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between a Rock and a Hard Place

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, this is my second work and I hope I've kept up my momentum. Thanks to a particularly cruel bastard friend, I just recently joined the Baccano! fandom. Eight years late. Then, I went for the gold in idiocy and started shipping Luck/Eve. I read through every Luck/Eve fic I could find. Twice. Times have been rough.
> 
> This is what happened when I couldn't take it anymore.

Everyone is conspiring against him. 

All Samantha can talk about is what a "handsome, fine gentlemen he is." Benjamin's usually asleep so he doesn't even know who Dallas is talking about when he mentions the gnat flying around his sister.

They have "business" meetings but he knows goddamn well that's not all they are. Eve leaves for her trips to New York looking far too giddy and comes back looking just as happy. 

Don't get him wrong. He loves to see his sister happy. Of course he isn't jealous that he isn't the one making her happy. Dallas and Eve aren't attached at the hip and he is the farthest thing from overprotective. Anyone who thinks otherwise is lookin' for a broken nose. Anyway. The reason for her merry trips to New York is what concerns him: the Gandors. 

He has tried numerous times to keep her away from that den of illegal activities but every time he tries, she firmly replies, "We need their help, Dallas." The determined look in her eye tells him she has no intention of backing down anytime soon. He knew times were tough but surely they could turn to someone else. Literally _anyone_  else. 

If he had known that letting Eve take over as the head of the family meant that she would be in constant contact with slimy snakes like them, he would have taken the job himself. Overwhelming fear of the Gandors or not. That fear would be much better than the problems he has right now. The worst one: Luck seems to have taken an interest in Eve.

That smug bastard has the nerve to try putting the moves on his baby sister! And there's nothing he can do to stop it. He knows from experience that getting on the Gandor's bad side will only end in lots of pain and little satisfaction. Worst of all, Eve enjoys the creep's attention. 

At first, he was in sweet, blissful denial. The blushes and looks meant nothing at all. Eve was just stressed about having to make deals with the devil, not giddy. Hell's flames rolling off of the Gandor brothers were warming her face. She certainly wasn't blushing. No, that would be impossible. The looks she cast Luck's way were nothing more than a scared rabbit carefully watching the ferocious fox for any sudden movements.  She just directed her gaze elsewhere a little too late and a bit too abruptly to avoid unwarranted suspicion for her completely platonic, cautious actions. 

He would have gone on believing just that until the asshole chuckled at her antics and directed a deceptively warm upturn of his mouth (like hell that bastard can smile) at Eve.  Eve being the sweet, naive angel that she is, assumed that it was sincere and her face flamed an alarming shade of scarlet. 

She's way too good to be consorting with scum like him and at this rate, it must be having negative effects on her health. All of that blushing can't be good for her. 

Despite how obvious Eve had been, initially Luck hadn't appeared to reciprocate her feelings and for that he had been thankful. If it had just been a one-sided crush then he could have dealt with it. He could have rested easier knowing Eve wouldn't get sucked in any farther into the underbelly of society. That would have been great. If only luck had been on his side.

His worst nightmares came true when he caught Luck looking at his sister with vague interest. He should have known when Keith and Berga stopped coming to the meetings.  At the time, he was just relieved that Berga wasn't constantly cracking his knuckles and stomping his foot in anger. The lack of Keith's glare was welcome too. It had been uncomfortable with them there but he refused to abandon Eve in that snake pit. 

He hadn't been relieved for long though. Right about then, he stopped chaperoning her to New York. Not because he wanted to, of course.  Somehow, Eve had tricked him into various projects around the house and hid the calendar so he wouldn't know what day of the week it was. After being asked to reorganize all of the photo albums for the fourth time, he cottoned on to what she was doing.

He hadn't been to one of their "meetings" in at least a few months but he knew that they were becoming unnecessarily frequent.  They used to be once a month but now they're meeting at least once a week, if not more. He doesn't know the specifics because she somehow coerced him into a position on the church committee. Despite how scarce he is at church, they happily accepted him and  often keep him busy with various projects. Dallas is actually the main contributor for the bake sales. Though he will take his latent talent for baking to the grave and no amount of pain will change that.

 He was so busy that he had nearly forgotten about the entire situation until one fine Sunday afternoon when he came across Luck Gandor sitting in his parlor like he owned the damn place. Once the panic and trembling passed, he remembered how friendly the mafioso was getting with Eve as of late. 

The nerve. Sittin' in his old man's chair, elbows resting on his knees with hands steepled like he was trying to be fucking profound or something. He had even taken his suit jacket off. Man, he was just makin' himself comfortable, wasn't he? Prick.

There was a slight redness to his cheeks and to the untrained eye, it might seem as if Luck was a tad nervous or embarrassed but Dallas knew better.  Gandor was clearly up to something. 

Dallas narrowed his eyes at the unsuspecting mafia executive. It didn't take long for Luck to sense eyes on him like some sort of freak. Upon noticing Dallas conspicuously glaring at him, he promptly straightened his back and his eyes hardened.

So he was still mad at him then. That makes two of 'em.

"Dallas, how nice to see you. How are you?" despite the polite words, he could practically feel the temperature in the room drop.  His saccharine "smile" promised pain. If one could call the cold upturn of his mouth a smile, that is. Dallas felt a tremble building at the base of his spine but he refused to show it.  Besides, Luck was the fish out of water this time.

Berga was nowhere in sight and even if Luck was armed, he would gladly take a bullet over a beating from Berga any day.  Besides, if Gandor wanted to do anything more than shoot him, Eve would notice if he went missing again so he was safe for the moment. 

However, it would be best not give the Gandor brother a hard time and after a long silence he answered the mafioso's question, "Fine, no thanks to you." Dallas' curt response made no apparent change in the other man's expression but he knew that Luck's patience was thinning. 

The confrontation was getting tenser by the second until Eve rounded the corner and noticed him. "Dallas!" Ah, he must have startled her a bit. "Are you feeling better?"  Ah, sweet little Eve, he felt emboldened just by her presence. He directed a smile at her and reassured her that he was feeling better.

"Thank goodness! I wish you could have come to church with me. I suppose we'll just have to try again next weekend." Though he may be on the committee now, he has no intention of going to church. Mrs. Johnson would be there and he had heard more than enough about her new pasta maker at the soup kitchen, the bake sale, and various committee meetings she had cornered him at. Normally, he would have just told her where she could shove it but he was trying his best to behave for Eve. He only had so much patience though. 

While he was pitying himself for all of his precious time wasted at the hands of the old woman, Eve remembered that they had (unwelcome) company.

"Ah, Luck. Your suit jacket."

The man in question had seemed faintly put off at being ignored until Eve directly addressed him. "Thank you, Eve."

He rose from the chair, and made his way to Eve to retrieve the outstretched coat. Dallas grimly notes that she seems a bit flustered when the snake's fingers briefly brush her own. He likes it even less when Luck has the faintest of smirks on his face. He also just noticed that they started calling each other by their first names. It was always "Mr. Gandor" and "Miss Genoard" as far as he knew so what the hell was this?

He mercilessly cuts through whatever atmosphere there may have been like a machete when he demands to know why the hell Luck is in their house. "Oh, well Luck was...well..." Eve seemed to have trouble saying it and her sentence petered off.

Luck continued for her,"I was shot. Eve was kind enough to insist upon us stopping by your home so that Ms. Samantha could fix the holes in my suit jacket." Eve seemed a bit flustered at that explanation but didn't argue. 

Dallas could easily imagine her dragging the mafia executive to their house and stripping him of his jacket for mending.  While the thought of Luck being pushed around by his little sister was funny, this situation was less than humorous. 

For Eve to have brought him back home with her on Sunday means that he caught her on her way home from church. As far as he knew, Eve was the Gandors' only contact in the area. Or at least their only ally, considering how Luck ended up in his house. Therefore, Luck came to see Eve. On a day when they didn't have a meeting scheduled. He already didn't like where this was going.

They always met in New York and never on a Sunday. He couldn't stand that Eve went out of her way so the prick wouldn't have to be _inconvenienced_ to come to New Jersey but at least that way, he hardly ever saw the piece of shit. He liked to think that they never met on Sunday because Eve regarded it as a holy day and she didn't want to tarnish it by meeting with Luck.  Unlikely, but a guy can dream can't he?

That morning, Eve had gone to church like she always did and he had stayed home.  He had lied that he wasn't feeling well enough to go with her like he always did. (He was fairly sure he wasn't capable of getting sick anymore but Eve never pressed the matter.) His usual arbitrary excuse to avoid Mrs. Johnson had been successful but at what cost? Clearly, he had been foolish to assume that today would be like every other Sunday.

"So why the hell are you still here then?" Had he been alone with the Gandor, he might have been worried at how brazen the question came out but with Eve there, he felt like he could get away with it. Fortunately for him, Luck seemed to have calmed down a bit and was back to his default level of exasperation. 

"If you must know, I have something to discuss with Eve." Dallas' eyebrow rose and he curled his lip in that uncouth way Eve disliked.

"Ya never heard of a telephone?" Luck's smile grew particularly strained.

"It's concerning a matter best discussed in person."

"'hell's that supposed to mean?!" That sounds awfully damn suspicious to him! He got even more pissed when all Luck did was sigh.

"...Let me phrase it this way, if I called, you would hang up on me without even alerting Eve that I had called, would you not?" 

"Yup," Dallas said without shame. He had done it before after all. So what if he had hid in his room for a bit after that? "That still doesn't explain why you-"

"Dallas." Uh oh. He knew that tone. He slowly turned to Eve. Oh no. _The Look_. Nothing good comes of _The Look_.

"...Yeah?" it came out a lot quieter than he would have liked.

"Please stop being rude to our guest." The finality of her tone nearly subdued him but he refused to go down like this in front of Luck.

"But-" the intensification of _The Look_ quelled his rebuttal.

"Our guest is being polite to you, despite your past transgressions against him, so it would be best if you returned the same respect."

He certainly didn't agree with that but he knew better than to argue with Eve when she was using _The Look_. Turning his head to the side and away from the other two occupants of the room in a completely mature manner, he mumbled, "...fine."

Dallas could practically feel Luck smirking at him but as much as it pissed him off, he knew that there was nothing he could do. Eve had mastered the look their mom used to give him when he started fights with the other boys at garden parties.  One severe look from their mother took all of the fight out of him and crippled him with shame. He was no longer capable of shame but he was sorry that his behavior made Eve feel like she had to apologize to that creep.

"I'm really sorry about my brother's rudeness."

"It's all right."

She didn't look convinced but she let the matter drop. "Shall we go and discuss that matter you mentioned?"

"That would be great." He smiled and he got an undeserved angelic smile in return.

"The sitting room seems as good a place as any," suggested Eve.

"Lead the way." Oh _hell_ no. Like hell he was going to allow Luck to be alone with his sister when he could be there to make sure nothing happened. Dallas started to follow Eve to their sitting room but she noticed and told him, "Brother, clearly you're still not feeling well. Maybe you should go back to your room and rest."

It sounded like a worried request but with hints of _The Look_  starting to surface again he knew better than to refuse. With a grunt, he took a right and started climbing the stairs to the second floor. As he got farther away, he heard his sister and the bastard talking.

"I'm sorry that he was so unpleasant."

"It's not your fault. I expected as much from him."

"But still...Oh I know! Why don't you stay over for dinner to make up for it?" Wait...what. Nononononono-

"That sounds delightful."

SON. OF. A. BITCH!

 

Later when he showed up at the dinner table, the smirk Luck gave him nearly made his knuckles go white with how hard he clenched his fists. Well, mark his words, he's going to church every Sunday from now on.  He just hopes Mrs. Johnson will finally take a damn hint someday soon.

 

 

 


End file.
